"The modern master of the gamebook format" (Rob Sanders)... "Can do dark very well" (Jonathan Oliver)... "Green gets mileage out of his monsters" (SFX Magazine)... "It takes a firm editorial hand and a keen understanding of the tone of each piece to make a collection this diverse work, and Green makes it look effortless" (Starburst Magazine)

Christmas Explained

Pages

Monday, 30 September 2013

Yesterday I attended my 19th Games Day in a row. It was a strange beast, dramatically downsized from previous years with a complete absence of games altogether - and what's Games Day without the games?

To be honest I don't go for the games, but there wasn't much of anything else either. That said, I still didn't manage to see everything - including the new Dark Elves stuff (having written the colour text for the first Dark Elves Army book back in 1994) - because I spent the whole day hanging out with friends.

It was good to see the likes of Matt Sylvester, Toby Frost and Cavan Scott (both of whom were attending Games Day for the first time), and chat with the likes of Jes Bickham, Nick Kyme, Guy Haley, Chris Wraight, Graham McNeill, Neil Roberts, Andy Smilie, John French, Anthony Reynolds, Nik Vincent, William King (et al)*, and I also met up with Messrs Jackson and Livingstone who were attending Games Day together for the first time in a long time.

The Black Library stand had a pleasing number of PoD titles by Yours Truly for sale, including my two Path to Victory Gamebooks. I spent far too much money on event-exclusive titles and picked up a couple of audio dramas that helped pass the time in the traffic jam that took up most of the journey home. (Gav Thorpe, C Z Dunn and Andy Smilie are fast becoming masters of the audio format.)

So here's my haul from the day.

The most annoying thing is that I bought Dan Abnett's new Horus Heresy novel Unremembered Empire, later saw Dan Abnett, then said hello, and later goodbye, to Dan Abnett, and yet totally forgot to ask Dan Abnett to sign Dan Abnett's new book Unremembered Empire. Ho-hum, maybe next time.

"An idea is a wonderful thing, but writers have them all the time... I’m always a little surprised to get a question about ideas, because, honestly, they’re not really the thing I worry about when it comes to writing. I worry about stamina. I worry about cadence and rhythm. I worry about my audience..."

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

I am so close to finishing the manuscript for YOU ARE THE HERO that you could say I'm at paragraph 395 (to use a gamebook analogy). I have interviewed a great many people about Fighting Fantasy and their experiences of it - and they've had some great stories to tell - but there are still a significant number of creators I have not been able to contact*, despite having trawled the Internet, and called in all manner of favours.

So, if anyone could help me in tracking down and contacting any of the following, I would greatly appreciate it. But time is, as they say, of the essence...

I know that seems like I lot, but I can assure you I have already interviewed a lot more for the book!

Feel free to pass this on to anyone who you think might be able to help.

* Or who have not returned my calls, if you know what I mean.** Every time I contact Steve Jackson Games, they seem to think I'm trying to contact Steve Jackson UK (whom I know), despite me repeating repeatedly that this is not the case.*** I'm really keen to talk to Stephen Hand.

Saturday, 21 September 2013

So, this time last week I was in Lincoln once again for Weekend at the Asylum 2013*. This year I headed up at stupid o'clock Saturday morning but upon arrival was met by a host of familiar faces (many of whom appear in the slideshow below).

Lincoln By Night

Both Saturday and Sunday saw me hosting panels about Steampunk fiction, which were better attended than in previous years, with one of them taking over the main hall of the Lincoln Assembly Rooms. It was great to catch up with old friends, and make new ones, even if I did manage to avoid meeting The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, even though that stopped by the stall I was sharing with Mr Kit 'Major Jack Union' Cox and Miss Emily Ladybird.

Other highlights included being interviewed by Geek Syndicate, having a fan practically order me to write another Pax Britannia novel, and having one of my short stories not only appear in the annual Asylum short story collection - Ghosts of the Asylum, published by The Last Line - but also headline the collection!

Ghosts of the Asylum featuring the short story Signs & Portents, by Yours Truly

Once again, it was a wonderful weekend of mirth and merriment, and you can get just the smallest taster of what it was like by viewing the following magic lantern presentation...

So, if you're at the Asylum (or even just happen to be in Lincoln), why not stop by the Assembly Rooms in time to join in with the panel I'll be taking part in today?

Publishing, self, small or mainstream?

Saturday 14 September,
11.00 a.m.

(Assembly Rooms Tennyson Suite)

Steampunk
is a creative scene which attracts writers. How do you get published? Is
self-publishing an option? What about setting up your own publishers? With Meg
Kingston, Jim Snee, Sam Stone and Jonathan Green.

Thursday, 12 September 2013

It may be over six years old now, but Unnatural History is still wowing readers for the the first time. Here's the latest review of the book that started it all...

"Very good read of a boy's own type plot, intriguing till the end, the type of book that you don`t want to put down. In the end you feel you know the central character and liken him to James Bond and in the tradition of all good books a good lead in to further adventures."

This weekend, around 1,500 Steampunks will descend on the historic city of Lincoln (in the UK) to celebrate Weekend at the Asylum 5.

Pax Britannia has been a fixture there since the very beginning, and this will be my third visit to the premier Steampunk convention in Europe.

I shall be present in the Assembly Rooms, selling my wares and talking about all things related to Steampunk and literature. The specific timings of the panels I'm involved in are as follows:

Saturday 14 September, 11.00am (Assembly Rooms Tennyson Suite)Publishing, self, small or mainstream? - Steampunk is a creative scene which attracts writers. How do you get published? Is self-publishing an option? What about setting up your own publishers. With Meg Kingston, Jim Snee, Sam Stone and Jonathan Green.

Sunday 15 September, 11.00am(Assembly Rooms Main Room)Steampunk Fiction - Authors talking about steampunk in the written form on page and screen. Where is it now? Where do they see it to be going? With Toby Frost, Linzi Cooke, Raven Dane and Jonathan Green.

The panels at the recent Nine Worlds Geekfest were a lot of fun, and my fellow panellists are great raconteurs, so the talks at the Asylum should be highly entertaining if nothing else.

Sunday, 8 September 2013

In Shadows Over Sylvaniayou take on the role of a Vampire thrall of one of the bloodthirsty rulers of the accursed county of Sylvania. Your adventure takes place in the years following Count Vlad von Carstein’s failed attempt to become the first vampire Emperor. There are no Colleges of Magic, Konrad von Carstein is yet to seize control of the realm, and the legendary battles of Grim Moor and Hel Fenn are still in the future.

Throughout the adventure you will be forced to battle numerous enemies who would stand against you, both mortal and Undead. You will also come across weapons and other useful items that may help you progress in your adventure. And then there are the difficult decisions that you will be forced to make which could well have a direct impact on how events play out later in the story.
Here's what fans have had to say about the book so far:

"Jonathan has done a great job of bringing the Warhammer World to life in a new and totally unexpected way.""The adventure kept my interest throughout the story and the narrative was engaging and interesting to the end.""I just can't stop playing through this adventure, there are so many twists and turns and the different bloodlines adds a interesting new aspect to the story as well as the allies system which adds a totally new layer to the game.""Overall, this is a fantastic game book that I have revisited many times and undoubtedly will again.""9/10 - A great game book with enough options and interesting story line to mean it is revisited many times."

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

"As the constant thrum of laptop keyboards in coffee shops across the nation testifies, nearly everyone, it seems, wants to be an author. And, according to the New York Times, 81% of Americans feel they have a book in them. New technology plays its part here. So too, perhaps, does writing’s attraction as a way of asserting one’s existence in a world where the traditional terrain for being acknowledged by others – the workplace, family or neighbourhood – is increasingly under strain."

~ Colin Robinson, co-founder of the New York-based independent publisher OR Books

"Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that's where it should stay.”

Monday, 2 September 2013

"I’m a writer. I’m a storyteller. If the story is there to be told, and I’ve got the urge to tell it, there’s no hope for me. Other people doing other jobs don’t really get this aspect of what we do. They don’t seem to understand that we can’t help ourselves. We can’t just not do something. We can’t just put down a job or let someone take over, or pass something down the line, or give up. I feel rather sorry for other people. That urge to tell the story is why I keep coming back for more rejection, I suppose. I’m becoming a master at handling rejection. Most of the time, I’m so up to my neck in rejection that drowning in it really doesn’t seem like a very big deal."

Sunday, 1 September 2013

One of the New Year's Resolutions I made to myself in 2012, was to post something on this blog every day that year. I didn't announce this with a big fanfare, like some authors have done in the past. In fact, I didn't announce it at all. It was just a promise I made to myself.

Since then (unlike some other bloggers) I have managed to keep that promise, with often more than one post appearing on any one day. In the process I developed the themed day blogs, starting the week with a Thought for the Day on Monday, Tie-in (Fiction) Tuesday, Warhammer Wednesday, Steampunk Thursday (the alliteration gave up on me at this point), Gamebook Friday and Short Story Saturday. Sundays were reserved for any other news/amusing YouTube clips/extracts from the funny pages, that kind of thing.

Well now a change in circumstances means that it is no longer realistic, or even possible, for me to blog every day, so instead I will be blogging once a week (minimum). I may still use the themed day tags to hang posts on, but they won't be so prescriptive anymore. (Not that they were that prescriptive to begin with.)

So, there you go. Hopefully I'll manage to maintain a certain level of quality to my blog posts, if not the same quantity as in the past, but bear with me... There's still plenty of cool stuff to come from the laptop of Jonathan Green, Author. ;-)

Current Progress on

Recent Posts

Buy my books

Claws

Sticks and Stones

Subscribe To

Path to Victory Gamebooks

Gamebook Companion

Recent visitors

Here's what people have been saying about my books...

"Green deserves 10/10." - The Independent

"As welcome as a warm glass of mulled wine on a wintry night, Green's guide to Christmas enhances the pleasures of the festive season, offering a witty cornucopia of Christmas facts and folklore." - The Good Book Guide

"As usual, author Jonathan Green gets mileage out of his monsters, with big action set-pieces that read like Things We'd Like to See in a rip-roaring summer movie if the creature effects were good enough." - SFX Magazine

WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GREEN

Forum

The Chrismologist

Jonathan Green

About Me

I am a freelance writer and editor, well known for my contributions to the Fighting Fantasy range of adventure gamebooks. I have also written for such diverse properties as Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Who, Star Wars and Games Workshop's worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.
I am the creator of the alternative steampunk universe of Pax Britannia, and have written eight novels featuring the debonair dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver.
As well as my fiction work, I have also written a number of non-fiction books including 'Match Wits with the Kids', 'What is Myrrh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas' and 'YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks'.